Horror Inspirations:: By Author Matt Forgit

Hello, beautiful, awesome, and brilliant Kindertrauma people!

My name is Matt Forgit. I’m the author of It’s Always Halloween Here, How to be a Professional Mourner, The Felicitous, and You Better Watch Out. I am also a longtime fan and reader of this amazing website, as well as a lifelong horror geek. In honor of my newest release, It’s Always Halloween Here, my friends here have graciously allowed me to write about the influences and inspirations for my writing.

Truth be told, although I write horror novels that feature slashers, ghosts, gore, and gruesome events, I am a giant chicken. I love horror and love to be scared, until it’s 3 a.m. I hear every noise in the house, convinced a serial killer or angry spirit has come to take me away! Yet there has always been something about the feeling of fear, dread, and fright that is exciting and inspiring to me. Horror explores many themes, whether it be emotional, mental, physical, or psychological, as well as allows us to release some of our fears. 

I was a lonely, nerdy, uncool kid growing up. I did not have any friends, nor did I have an interest in typical “boy” things like sports or hunting (which is a crime as a boy in a small town). I was relentlessly bullied daily and felt like I didn’t fit in anywhere. (Note: Don’t get out your Kleenex for my sob story. I turned out okay. I have lots of love and support, and a good therapist, in my adulthood). Horror became home, and provided me comfort, catharsis, and excitement. Horror fueled my imagination, gave me trailblazing final girls to look up to, and a well of endless stories tied to mythology, folklore, urban legends, and campfire tales. Many of the things that influenced my writing share similar concepts and ideologies. I was really drawn to that terrible/wonderful feeling of fear, uncovering a mystery, learning how to be strong and fight back against enemies and evildoers, and characters who have friends, family, and a community. It was, quite earnestly, a savior to me as a young person, and my love for horror has only grown.

I like to call my books “B-movie schlock,” but I hope they’re also scary, nostalgic, distinctive, and heartfelt. With that, here’s what gives me inspiration!

Nancy Drew Mysteries. As a kid, I received The Mystery of the Glowing Eye as a gift, and that was all it took. Mystery, intrigue, the search for truth and justice, and a smart, capable, resourceful heroine? I was sold. Nancy broke the restraints of her time period and emerged as a resilient, inquisitive, and indefatigable sleuth, just like I wanted to be. I wanted people to call me and ask for my help in finding lost treasures, missing people, and to investigate haunted houses and spooky locales. I longed to be known as Matt Forgit, Boy Sleuth, but unfortunately, I was more Boy Dork, who loved pop divas, reading, and snacks.

Christopher Pike, R.L. Stine, Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, Choose Your Own Adventures, and YA thrillers. I grew up during a magical time when I could go to my local bookstore, B. Dalton Booksellers, and find so many treasures, filled with terror, creepy locales, and events from the past that come back to haunt us in the present. Christopher Pike wrote teenaged characters who were taken seriously and had real feelings, thoughts, and personalities. R.L. Stine’s Fear Street kept me captivated with tales of young people in jeopardy and a cursed town. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark not only had terrifying, vivid pictures that scare me to this day, like the ghastly visage of the woman in the haunted house, but the stories themselves were total nightmare fuel. Point and Scholastic steadily churned out new thrillers for young adults, turning everything from prom dresses, letters, lifeguards, and Jack-O-Lanterns into possessed, deadly foes. Choose Your Own Adventure would actually have endings where you, the reader, were killed. In one of the stories, my scuba companions and I were surrounded by tiger sharks, and, well, I did not appreciate that one bit.

USA’s Up All Night and Saturday Nightmares. Once upon a time, there was an incredible channel called the USA Network, which played B-movies on Friday and Saturday nights. Every weekend, I would stay up late to watch every terrible and amazing film they would play, many of which are classics in my heart. Spookies? I love you forever. Demon Wind? I would watch ten sequels to that. Doom Asylum? I could watch on repeat. Neon Maniacs? I want the backstory and trading card for every one of them. Dracula’s Dog? I want Dracula’s cat, hamster, zebra, and koala. I looked forward to every movie. These were made with no budgets to speak of, but with sheer ambition, determination, and passion, which is exactly what it’s like as an indie horror author. I’m not diving into my cellar filled with gold coins like Scrooge McDuck, though I can dream.

Friday the 13th Part 3. This was the movie that hit it all home. I begged my Dad to let me watch this on Fox Channel 5, a local station. It changed everything for me. I went from the light, kid-friendly horrors into the deep end of it all. A hulking, mute killer with no mercy or sympathy, an isolated location, and a very brave, determined final girl in the great Chris Higgins. Horror staples, that I didn’t know were staples back then, that are now time-honored traditions.

Friday the 13th: The Series, Monsters, She-Wolf of London, Tales from the Darkside, Freddy’s Nightmares, and Sightings. Syndicated series with small budgets but big imaginations and creativity, relying on unconventional methods of storytelling and talented writers, directors, and actors to tell their tales. Sightings, while the outlier on this list because it was presented as fact, filled my mind with “true” stories and mustachioed psychics, and I never questioned its validity. Horror was everywhere, from the mundane to the supernatural, and I loved it all. Cursed antiques, werewolves, killer dreams, aliens, cryptids, and more. My imagination sparked every time I saw a new story idea, folktale come to life, and clever way to tell a story to an audience despite limited resources.

April Fool’s Day and Chopping Mall. The first two horror movies I ever rented on VHS, and the first ones I ever saw that weren’t edited for television viewings. Likable, fun characters and groovy settings, threats lurking around every corner, and memorable dialogue and stalking scenes. Not to mention the great Amy Steel and Kelli Maroney, two women who have earned their place in the Final Girls Hall of Fame™.

Halloween, Killer Party, The Fog, Night of the Demons, and Black Christmas. Thanks to my local Mom-and-Pop video stores, I spent many hours perusing the eye-catching covers to so many videocassettes. However, some of the movies have stayed with me for many reasons. Halloween and Black Christmas showed me that horror doesn’t have to be loud or aggressive. Sometimes, it’s quiet, patient, and peeking around the corner. Night of the Demons is raucous, fun, and had no loftier goals than to showcase incredible, practical special effects. The Fog is moody, atmospheric, contemplative, and filled with creeping dread. Killer Party is three movies in one, featuring three engaging leads, especially my nerd queen Vivia. They all share one thing in common, though. They have style. They were made by people who cared about what they were making and put real effort into what they created. That is exactly what I want readers to feel when they read one of my books. Even if you don’t enjoy my work (though, in the words of Stephanie Tanner, “How rude!”), I hope it comes through that on each page, I put thought, effort, and care into every word and scenario.

I hope I didn’t lose everyone! There are probably about another two hundred movies, television shows, and books I could go on about, but I’ll simply give an “honorable mention” here to some of them. A Nightmare on Elm Street, The Strangers, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Popcorn, Prom Night 4: Deliver Us from Evil, Session 9, Scream, I Know What You Did Last Summer, My Bloody Valentine, The Changeling, Alien, The Others, Jaws, Insidious, Beetlejuice, Night of the Comet, The Conjuring, Clue, The Goonies, Gremlins, MST3K, Unsolved Mysteries, Twin Peaks, The X-Files, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Jan Harold Brunvand’s urban legends series, and Weird N.J. have had great impacts on my work, for various reasons. Oh, and the Sleestaks from Land of the Lost. Those screeching, lumbering, green humanoids of horror. They showed me what true terror was, and I still hate them, but love them.

Thank you, Kindertrauma, for having me. And thank you, everybody, for reading! My new book, It’s Always Halloween Here, is available on Amazon, as are my other novels. Wishing everyone good health, love, happiness, success, and lots of spooky, creepy fun!